Nine Tenths of You Are Revenants

Mostly, that part of the dead
You knew were already dead
And, naturally, never dead,
Insofar as you knew them,
So why ask them to stay dead?

Most of the dead you have known
You’ve known as names and language,
Still or moving images,
While your more personal dead,
The people you knew alive,

All become those things as well,
Mixed in with your memories.
The only dead who can stay
Dead to you are you and those
Who go with you when you go.